“It was a good experience,” said Spring Lake senior Keegan George, who scored a goal in the victory. “(Opening a new stadium) is probably only going to happen a couple times for a couple people. Nobody is going to do this for a long, long, long time, so it’s a good experience for us.”

Head coach Jeremy Thelen was excited about the new complex, but also wary of it becoming a distraction for his team.

“It’s great to be out here,” Thelen said after his team improved to 2-0-2 on the season. “We’ve anticipated this for a long time. We’ve watched it built all summer long.

“I was nervous beforehand because there are so many distractions to opening night, but the guys came out and scored an early goal. It’s nice to get that early one because that takes some of the pressure off.”

That early goal came just six and a half minutes into the contest off the foot of junior Ryan Zietlow, who took a centering pass from senior Ben Mast and fired the ball into the Rocket net to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead.

Baruch Kamps extended the lead to 2-0 with 23 ½ minutes remaining in the game, also with an assist from Mast, in what proved to be the game winning goal.